Technology

Study: Trump likely driving white nationalist gains on Twitter

by David McCabe 09/01/16 10:52 AM ET

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign is “likely driving” part of the recent growth in the white nationalist movement on Twitter, according to a report released Thursday.

{mosads}The study, produced by George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, examined the interest in Trump’s campaign among accounts that follow certain white nationalists on Twitter.

“Followers of white nationalists on Twitter were heavily invested in Donald Trump’s presidential campaign,” wrote author J.M. Berger. “White nationalist users referenced Trump more than almost any other topic, and Trump-related hashtags outperformed every white nationalist hashtag except for #whitegenocide within the sets of users examined.”

Berger looked at tens of thousands of followers of major white nationalist and pro-Nazi accounts, and he found that three of the top 10 hashtags used by accounts in both groups of users during April were Trump-related. They were the third-, fourth- and fifth-most popular among white nationalist users examined and the third-, fourth- and seventh-most popular for Nazi sympathizers.

The hashtags included one referencing Trump’s campaign tagline, “Make America Great Again,” as well as the more traditional #Trump2016 and #Trump.

Berger reported that although white nationalists generally do not adopt new propaganda or messages online, Trump’s campaign has energized the movement on Twitter.

“A notable exception to this is Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy, which has energized white nationalists and provided new talking points and opportunities for engagement,” the report found. “Trump’s candidacy is likely driving some portion of movement’s recent gains on Twitter.”

Hope Hicks, a spokeswoman for Trump’s campaign, did not respond to a request for comment. Twitter also did not respond to a request for comment.

The study looked at only a small number of the total profiles associated with white nationalism on Twitter. Of the white nationalist accounts examined, less than 1 percent were posting exclusively about the Republican presidential nominee.

The analysis of white nationalist interest in Trump came as part of a broader study of white nationalism on Twitter. The report also found that while Twitter has cracked down heavily on Islamic extremist accounts, the white nationalist movement has operated with “relative impunity” on Twitter. That, the study said, could explain why white nationalist accounts have outpaced accounts linked to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) on many metrics.

“Additionally, it’s likely there are simply more white nationalists and Nazi sympathizers online and offline than there are ISIS supporters in the world,” Berger said. “ISIS dominates policy discussions of violent extremism online thanks to its military adventurism and rampant violence, but other extremist groups may be enjoying more success in building a large, sympathetic audience.”

Twitter has moved aggressively to combat extremist content on its site associated with ISIS. Earlier this month, the company said that since February it had shut down 235,000 accounts associated with terrorism.

But the company, which is known for its zealous support of free speech, has come under increasing criticism for not taking a strong enough stand against harassment toward its users, particularly people of color and women.